


The tide is brave, but always retreats

by rocketdocket



Category: Superstore (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fix-it fic, Happy Ending, dialogue-heavy, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 11:27:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14448315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketdocket/pseuds/rocketdocket
Summary: Alternate ending to s3 e21 "Aftermath". Another way Amy and Jonah's argument could've gone.





	The tide is brave, but always retreats

**Author's Note:**

> I want to apologize in advance for how... not good this fic is. I wrote it post-episode in like 30 mins. I'm kinda tired and my brain has been extra-foggy lately from my lithium so I'm feeling kinda self-conscious about posting this, because I forgot how to write there for a second.
> 
> Title is from my faves Sleeping at Last, "East", because of course.
> 
> "Now I bear little resemblance to the king I once was.  
> I bear little resemblance to the king I could become.  
> Maybe paper is paper, maybe kids will be kids-  
> Lord, I want to remember how to feel like I did."

The argument had been brewing all day. Like thick, dark clouds encircling tighter and tighter around them, almost suffocating, until there was no choice but for it to break. Thunder to crash. Rain to fall.

 

“I can’t believe you’re this angry that I kissed you!” Amy yells incredulously.

 

“No, I’m angry because you kissed me during the tornado. And I was ready to be with you, to lay my heart out on the line for you, and you _not only_ got back together with your husband, but also _started couples counseling_ with him! So, I respected that choice, and I tried to move on. And I get into this great relationship with this wonderful girl named Kelly, and you come in, without any sort of… plan for us to have any kind of future together, and kiss me. Again. What am I supposed to _do_ with that Amy?” Jonah finishes angrily, lowering his hands he’d been gesticulating wildly with.

 

Amy just looks at Jonah, visibly shaken by his response. Her eyes begin to tear, but she doesn’t respond.

 

Jonah just sighs. “And what am I supposed to tell Kelly, huh? I doubt she’s going to find this funny. Three kisses between us is a bit of a stretch, even if I didn’t want to be with you.”

 

Amy gives a little start at that, and Jonah breaks eye contact, looking as if he’d revealed something he really wished he hadn’t.

 

“I can’t just be this…. Stress reliever you come find and kiss every time your life gets screwed up—” Amy cuts him off then.

 

“Is that really all you think you are to me? A stress reliever?”

 

“Well, aren’t I?” Jonah rebuts.

 

“Jonah…. you’re my impossible dream,” Amy quietly admits.

 

Jonah stills. “What… does that even mean,” Jonah questions, everything in his body and his voice screaming hesitation and uncertainty.

 

“Jonah. I got pregnant in high school. And I love my daughter Emma, you know I do. But… this was never the dream I had for my life. I married the guy who got me pregnant, who I probably never would've stayed with if it weren’t for our daughter. I never dreamed of working at Cloud9. Shocking, I know,” Amy lets out a little laugh at this, and Jonah can’t help but allow the corner of his mouth to twitch up into a grin in response. “I put everyone else first. Always have, always will. You know that about me.” Jonah nods, thinking back to all the times she'd moved mountains for other people, often at the cost of herself.

 

“But Jonah… when I’m with you, I’m a different me. I’m an Amy who gets to put herself first. An Amy who can… have fun, or ask for a raise, or dream big for herself. An Amy who is free, to-- to be whoever, or do whatever, she wants to do. An Amy who gets to be with you, and tell you that she loves you,” her voice trails off, tender and quavering. A few tears slide down her face and drip off her chin, and she sees Jonah’s frozen face and wide eyes at her admission.

 

“And for a second, I actually believed I could be her. The Amy who does all those things and can _have_ all those things. I finally had the courage to end my marriage and get a divorce. I allowed myself to have friends, and fun, and take charge. To feel free and to have a future just… open for me. I could finally be with you. You were with Kelly, but I was willing to wait. To respect that relationship, like you had respected mine.” At this point, Amy allows her tears to fall, unable to hold back as she continues.

 

“But then I found out I was pregnant. And I realized that… I could never be that Amy. I felt all my dreams disappear again, and all of a sudden I’m standing in high school, pregnant, from a guy I don’t want to be with but wants me just because it’s easiest. I’m working at Cloud9, most likely forever. And _you_ – I was so close to a different life. _I almost let myself believe I could have it._ More the fool me, right?” She lets out a dark chuckle at this, choked off by the force of her tears which have just become stronger.

 

“So that’s why I kissed you. I just wanted that one moment – that one perfect moment! To say goodbye to that dream,” Amy struggles to get out her last words, overwhelmed by emotion.

 

All of a sudden Jonah’s striding towards her and sweeping her up into his arms, just holding her to him. Amy fully lets go then, crying and wailing at full force, to the extent that she knows that if she wasn’t such a wreck right now she’d probably be embarrassed. After a few minutes, Jonah starts rubbing circles in her back, shushing her and intermittently kissing her hair. Finally, after what felt like hours but was most likely mere minutes, Amy quiets. Jonah pulls back to look at Amy, as she softly hiccup-sobbed a few more times. Amy knows she must look like a complete and utter mess – red eyes, messy hair, puffy face, snot – the whole nine yards. But there's Jonah, looking at her with all the warmth and comfort and _love_ in the world, and she feels safe. She feels a calm cover over her like a blanket.

 

Jonah reaches up to brush a few stray tears from under her eyes, before kissing her forehead. Then, “Amy Sosa. You’re giving me far too much credit, if you think for one second all those things you listed are because of me. I’ve told you before, you’re strong, and… sexy,” Jonah pauses to laugh, and Amy does too. “You’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. You’ve always taken charge of every situation – your life is no different. I didn’t tell you that you deserved a raise – you told me! I only encouraged you to go get it, which… we know how well that turned out.” Again, both Jonah and Amy start to laugh.

 

“You, Amy Sosa, can do anything you put your mind to. I watched you go through a divorce, learn how to be single again, adjust to all that—”

 

“Jonah, you’re rambling,” Amy interrupts in her familiar deadpan tone.

 

“My point is this. Don’t let anyone, least of all yourself, tell you that you can’t have the life you want. Because you’re a force to be reckoned with – I’ve known this from the day I met you. If you want me? You can have me. You know I’m already yours, Amy.” Jonah’s voice is both intimate and warm. Amy feels like she should be shocked at his admission, but she just nods, eyes welling again. “But the other stuff? That’s up to you.”

 

“You sound like Dina,” Amy chuckles. At Jonah’s confused face, she explains, “It’s just something she said to me the other day. She said ‘ _you can always find a reason not to do something. If there is stuff you want to do, do that stuff_ ’. It’s actually part of the reason I kissed you, yesterday.”

 

“Well Dina is a very smart woman. And if you ever tell her I said that, I will come after you,” he finishes, laughing.

 

They’re both quiet for a moment.

 

Then Amy breaks the silence, saying, “I’m sorry for kissing you, and disrupting your life again.”

 

Jonah smiles, before ruefully responding, “Amy, I thought we just covered this. Don’t apologize for what you want. If anything, I should be apologizing. To you, but most of all to Kelly. I’ve been terrible to her. I don’t know how I’m ever going to make it up to her. I honestly don't think I can.”

 

Amy pulls back at this. “What did you do?”

 

Jonah just looks at her incredulously. “Well, you know… I dated her while I was in love with this other girl. That girl is you, just in case you didn’t get that,” he snarks. Amy whacks his arm and he makes an exaggerated “ow” motion.

 

“There’s a lot to figure out. But let’s sort it all out tomorrow, yeah?” he concludes.

 

Amy nods. She leans in shyly, and presses a soft kiss to his lips. “I love you. I want you.”

 

Jonah’s blushes all over his face and neck, feeling like a smitten little kid again who doesn’t know how to respond when the pretty girl likes him.

 

“I love you too.”

 

Their situation is a complete mess, there's a lot to sort out, and it's going to be hard and challenging. But for this moment, Amy is happy. Truly happy. And smiling up at Jonah, she can see that he is too. So tomorrow can wait.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic in this fandom, so, hi! Hope you enjoyed it at least a little. I'm gonna go take a nap.


End file.
